On the 28th June 2021, the European Commission (Commission) adopted two adequacy decisions for the UK; one covering the GDPR and the other the Law Enforcement Directive (LED). Such decisions demonstrate that the Commission believes the UK ensures an ‘essentially equivalent’ level of protection to that within the EU. The implication of these decisions is that personal data can now flow freely from the EU to the UK, effective immediately.

Background

On the 19th February, the Commission published two draft adequacy decisions and launched the procedure for their adoption, which we previously wrote about here. Since then, the Commission has carefully assessed the UK’s laws and practices on personal data protection, including access to data by public authorities in the UK. The European Data Protection Board gave its opinion on the draft decisions in support of the Commission’s findings, which we also blogged about here, before finally receiving the ‘green light’ from the EU Member states’ representatives.

The Commission’s 93-page GDPR decision assesses the legal framework for the UK in detail even referencing laws such as the Magna Carta and Bill of Rights, and states ‘As the UK GDPR is based on EU legislation, the data protection rules in the United Kingdom in many aspects closely mirror the corresponding rules applicable within the European Union.’ They conclude  that ‘the Commission considers that the UK GDPR and the DPA 2018 ensure a level of protection for personal data transferred from the European Union that is essentially equivalent to the one guaranteed by Regulation (EU) 2016/679.’Continue Reading UK adequacy decision for European data transfers